Delivery of drugs, growth factors, hormones, peptides and glycopeptides to external wounds has classically occurred by direct topical application and application to internal wounds by injection into the blood or by absorption into the blood through the digestive system. Controlled release of these agents has been achieved by encapsulation either in bulk or at a microscopic level using synthetic polymers, such as silicone, and natural polymers, such as gelatin and cellulose. The release rate can be controlled for periods of up to a year by proper choice of the polymeric system used to control the diffusion rate (Langer, R. S. and Peppas, N. A., Biomaterials U.S. Pat. No. 2,201,1981). Natural polymers, such as gelatin and cellulose slowly dissolve in a matter of minutes to hours while silicone remains intact for periods of months to years. Biodegradable polymers offer an advantage for controlled release to internal wounds since only a single surgical procedure is necessary.
Collagen is a biodegradable polymer found in animals and in man. It has been used as a plasma expander, vehicle for drug delivery, vitreous body replacement, hemostatic agent, suture material, corneal replacement, hemodialysis membrane, wound dressing and artificial skin, hernia patch, vessel prosthesis, vaginal contraceptive, and injectable agent for tissue augmentation (Chvapil et al., Int. Review of Connective Tissue Research 6, 1, 1973; Chvapil, in Biology of Collagen edited by A. Viidik and J. Vuust, Academic Press, chapter 22, 1980). In most of these applications, the collagen is reconstituted and crosslinked into an insoluble form.
There is described in Yannas et al, (U.S. Pat. No. 4,060,081), the use of collagen and mucopolysaccarides as synthetic skin. Such material is crosslinked using glutaraldehyde, a bifunctional crosslinking agent, which reacts with free amines. One major drawback to using crosslinked collagen has been the adverse biological effects of free glutaraldehyde, a common agent used to crosslink and insolubilize collagen in many applications. Leaching of glutaraldehyde from crosslinked collagens has been shown to be cytotoxic to cells, specifically fibroblasts (Speer et al., J. Biomedical Materials Research 14,753,1980; Cooke et al., British J. Exp. Path. 64,172,1983). Recent evidence suggests that glutaraldehyde polymers and not monomeric glutaraldehyde form crosslinks between collagen molecules; these crosslinks can then rearrange to release free glutaraldehyde and glutaraldehyde polymers (Cheung, D. T. and Nimni, M. D., Connective Tissue Research 10,187-217,1982).